The organization has intensified its awareness creation asking residents of lowland areas in the region to relocate ahead of the Bagre dam’s spillage.

NADMO’s national Director, Nana Agyemang Prempeh, is leading a team advocating the operation thunderbolt 2017, recently launched following the recent floods.

The operation thunderbolt is headquartered in Walewale under the supervision of a Deputy NADMO National Director in charge of operations, Abu Ramadan.

Nana Agyemang Prempeh at a meeting with major stakeholders from the various district assemblies in the Northern Region, called for teamwork to save lives ahead of the Bagre dam spillage.

He made a passionate appeal saying, “I want us to all prepare ourselves. You have your men in your various districts so let them start doing the sensitization and the awareness creation.”

“We have pitched camp here, our people are here to do sensitization and awareness creation before the thing happens. In Ghana, we always wait until it happens before we bring mattresses and others but this time we want to change the style.”

“So I am just here to plead with you because you are the stakeholders as far as the assemblies are concerned to make a passionate appeal to our people especially those who know very well that where they are staying when it happens it is going to affect them to leave for this short period and move to other places,” he stressed.

He bemoaned the politicization of NADO operations and called for a paradigm shift.

According to him, disaster management is a serious business which should be devoid of partisan political considerations.

Nana Agyemang Prempeh insisted that NADMO officials should discontinue media interviews without authorization.

“As we wait for the spillage of the Bagre dam, I want to make this clear that NADMO work should be out of the politics of Ghana. If this country will progress, security and disaster management should not be politicized.”
“What happened in Tamale, whilst we were solving the problem some people were on air saying so many things. If you are a NADMO staff you don’t just speak on air and don’t just say anything without recourse to your Bosses because there are somethings you might not understand and you need to get proper information before you speak on air, it happened in Tamale and I didn’t like it,” he lamented.

NADMO has relocated its headquarters from Accra to the Northern Region to undertake the “Operation Thunderbolt 2017.”

The decision followed recent flooding which killed two people and destroyed homes, livestock, feeder roads and farmlands in some parts of the region.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NADMO on a high alert over Bagre dam spillage appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This year, the rains forecasts are going to be very heavy and they have started already in the north… Combined with the rainfall patterns, we are looking at almost half of the three northern regions being affected,” the Deputy Director of NADMO, Abu Ramadan said on Eyewitness News.

[contextly_sidebar id=”FLLvM6lhrDyj4QXtf7SbHy48OPeuD94E”]The impact of the flooding could extend to economic activities because “it is not just the human beings but the livestock and the farms that will be affected so it will have a great impact on cash and the economy of the people within the three northern regions.”

Areas in the Nothern Region recently had to contend with severe flooding from rainfall that left two persons dead.

The flooding also destroyed homes, livestock, feeder roads and farmlands in some parts of the region, even cutting off some towns.

A recent report concerning the threat of flooding “has sent panic” through NADMO, according to Mr. Ramadan.

This is especially so with the Bagre Dam situation because “these are water levels, that when they rise beyond the warning levels, there is a possibility of it breaking its boundaries and causing flooding situations.”

Bagre is almost about 20 percent full hence the need for it to be opened to prevent the breaking, he said.

Preemptive action underway

In anticipation of this, NADMO’s “operation thunderbolt” is already on the ground in the Northern Region and will be stationed in Wale Wale.

“Now we want to be in place before the incident happens so that we can raise more awareness and move people to highlands so that when the Bagre dam is opened, we can look at how best [we can handle the situation].”

” …we are taking experts, an urban search and rescue team and all manner of equipment to go and help the people so that we don’t have a huge disaster when the dam is opened.”

“We are looking at almost 50,000 to 60,000 people” who could be affected by a possible spillage he observed, a number that could double when the rain and the rising levels of the White Volta are factored in.

The flooding will affect about seven districts in the three northern regions; West Mamprusi, Savelugu Nanton, Tolon, Kumbungu, North, Central and West Gonja districts.

“There will be residual effects in the Eastern Regional Volta Region areas but if it is well managed up there, the impact level will be low as it comes down,” Mr. Ramadan also noted.

NADMO’s focus in the mean time will be “to go out and start sensitizing  people, identifying safe havens and high grounds where when the thing starts, we can ask them to move.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post 200,000 still at risk from Bagre dam, heavy rains – NADMO appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.